Eggless Challah made with Aquafaba

A beautiful egg-free challah made with aquafaba in lieu of eggs. The recipe makes three larger loaves or four smaller loaves. If you're making four smaller loaves, don't go beyond four ropes when braiding the challah. I found five ropes to be too skinny to produce an attractive loaf. Use a clean instant read thermometer to check the baked challah's temperature - when it reaches 190, it's done!

Ingredients

Dough

1 1/2 T Active Dry yeast - not Rapid Rise!!
2 c warmish water - warm to your wrist
1 c sugar + 1 T brown sugar
1 T table salt - not Kosher salt
1/2 c mild oil (I used grapeseed but you could use canola or another you like) + 1 T to oil the bowl
7 c AP flour (or bread flour, or a 50/50 mix of whole wheat and regular flour) + 1 to 2 additional cups, depending on how wet the dough seems after you mix it
1/3 c aquafaba (I defrosted 9 cubes that I thought would be a tablespoon each, and it ended up measuring 1/3 c. Next time I might try more.)

Glaze 

1 T mild cooking oil
1 T honey or agave
A bit of water

Steps

1. Put the yeast in the mixing bowl of your stand mixer, add the water, let the yeast bloom for a couple of minutes.
2. Add the sugar and brown sugar, stir.
3. Add the salt, stir.
4. Add the aquafaba, stir.
5. Add the 1/2 c oil, stir.
6. One cup at a time, add about half of the flour and mix with the paddle attachment of the stand mixer until it's well mixed.
7. Change to the dough hook, and one cup at a time, add the remaining flour until the full 7 cups have been added. If necessary, add more flour 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough is smooth and doesn't stick to your finger when you touch it.
8. Remove the dough to a clean surface (if necessary, clean the bowl).
9. Oil the bowl you're going to proof the dough in. I use the mixing bowl from my stand mixer, but it has to be cleaned first.
10. Put the dough in the oiled bowl and roll it around so all sides have a very light coating of oil.
11. Cover the bowl with a towel.
12. Put the bowl someplace warm, like the oven with the light on. You want the environment to be about 100 degrees. Consider turning the oven on to a very low temp for just a teeny bit of time, but remember to turn the oven off before you put the dough in there to proof. 
13. After about one hour, check the dough. It should have risen. A lot. Punch it down and fold it over itself into a new ball. 
14. Put the towel back over the bowl and stick it back in the oven or return it to its warm spot.
15. After 30 minutes, remove it from the oven and punch it again.
16. Braid it as you normally would.
17. Brush the unbaked dough with the glaze. You want the glaze to be runny enough to brush the uncooked dough without ripping it.
18. Bake at 375 for 25 - 40 minutes. The total time will vary based on how many loaves you make and the shape you choose. A long braided loaf will cook faster than a round loaf.

Barkers

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

As in "Meet the..."? No. The full name of this recipe is Matzah Bark, and it's something that we make annually at Passover (it's a Jewish holiday in the spring and for eight days, everybody gives up flour, bread, yeast, and pretty much anything that rises or expands). 

We made this again this year, and ate almost all of it before the kids got anywhere close to having a nibble. Which made us think of a radical concept. Maybe you've heard of it? It's called PORTION CONTROL. 

For Passover, we make this on sheets of matzah, an unleavened bread resembling a really large cracker. But for year-round enjoyment, you could easily make this on Saltines. (No trademark offense intended, we just don't know what else to call those square salted crackers that you eat when you have morning sickness. If we called them Morning Sickness Crackers, that would just be gross.) The added bonus: built-in PORTION CONTROL.

Since you can make this on either matzah or crackers, we're not calling it Matzah Bark. From now on, it's just Barkers.

Ingredients

• Four to six sheets of matzah, or as many as needed to completely cover your baking sheet OR
  
• Enough Saltines to cover a baking sheet
  
• 1 cup butter or margarine (Earth Balance, natch!)
  
• 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed (one of us likes it as is, the other would prefer a little less sugar, like maybe as little as 3/4 cup)
  
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, or whatever sort of chocolate you like that suits your allergy situation
  
• Salt, to taste
  

Steps

• Line a cookie sheet completely with parchment or waxed paper.
  
• Fill the lined cookie sheet with matzah or Saltines.
  
• Combine the butter/margarine and brown sugar in a 3-quart, heavy bottomed sauce pan. 
  
• Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil. 
  
• Continue cooking for three more minutes, stirring constantly. 
  
• Remove from heat and pour over matzah/crackers.
  
• If you're using matzah, this is a good time to put just a bit of salt over the sugar/butter. You don't want a lot, just a bit to offset the sweetness of the sugar/butter and chocolate.
  
• Meanwhile, melt chocolate in the microwave, in a double boiler, or just with direct heat (just make sure it doesn't burn!).
  
• Once the matzah/crackers have been coated with the sugar/butter combo, pour the melted chocolate on top and spread it around to cover all of the pieces as best as you can. This can get a little tricky if you're using crackers because they're small and may jump around a bit.
  
• Put the entire tray in the refrigerator until the chocolate sets up again.
  
• If you're using matzah, once the chocolate has hardened, break the matzahs up into bite sized pieces. Crackers shouldn't have to be broken up anymore as they're already somewhat small.
  

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Try to control yourself.

Happy Hamentaschen

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

Why are the hamentaschen so happy, you may be asking? Or you may be asking: what exactly is a hamentaschen? In reverse order, a hamentaschen is a triangle-shaped cookie with an exposed fruit filling, traditionally eaten during the Jewish holiday Purim - think Mardi Gras without the parades, liquor, beads, or boobs. 

Now to the first question: the reason that these hamentaschen are happy is because they are dairy-free, egg-free and nut-free! Can you say "hurray"?! We can't hear you! Now, you, in the back row! Alright! All together now!

These cookies totally rock - no kidding! If you like yours a little crisper, roll them just a bit thinner than 1/4", and if you want them a little crumblier (crumblier?) stick with rolling them out to the recommended thickness.  Someone we know and love called the crisper ones "cookietashen," but what does he know? A beloved member of the older generation (read: our Mom) thought the crisper ones were better, and everybody knows Mom knows best. The dough ingredients are from the Fig Not-Ins cookies, in the Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook, but the method is ours.

Dough Ingredients

• 1/4 cup margarine, softened
  
• 1/4 cup shortening
  
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  
• 1/4 cup soy milk
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or to taste, depending on whether or not your soy milk is vanilla flavored like ours is)
  
• 2 cups flour
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  

Filling Ingredients

• Jam or spreadable fruit of your choice. Try to find one that seems pretty thick but won't lose too much moisture when baked. Traditional fillings are poppy seed, prune, apricot, but we've also seen strawberry and blackberry, so knock yourself out. You could probably also try apple (or apple pie filling - nice!) with great success. We think.
  

Steps

• In a mixing bowl, cream together the margarine, shortening, and sugar. 
  
• Add the cornstarch and mix well. 
  
• Beat in the soy milk and vanilla. 
  
• Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and mix well. 
  
• Refrigerate the dough, covered, until it's chilled but still malleable enough to be rolled out, probably around an hour in the refrigerator.
  
• Roll the dough to about 1/4-inch thickness, maybe just a little less.
  
• Using a round cookie cutter (with a decorative edge, if you have one) with about a 3-inch diameter, cut circles out of the dough. 
  
• Put a small dollop (around a teaspoon) of fruit in the center of the circle, then the tricky part: you want your circle to become a triangle. So, mentally divide the circle into three equal pieces.  Create a pinch in the dough (creating one corner of the triangle) at the "top", repeat it to create a second corner, and do it once more for a third corner. Note: You don't want to mangle your dough, but you don't want the cookie to open up in the oven and your filling to run out all over the place, either. Leave a good portion of the filling exposed. Look at the photo for tips on this.
  
• Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until they are as crispy as you'd like. The thinner you roll your dough, the less time it will take to bake to your preferred degree of doneness. 
• After 3 to 4 minutes on the baking sheet, remove to a wire rack to fully cool.